莎士比亞十四行詩選讀（雙語）

1

From fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beauty's rose might never die,

But as the riper should by time decease,

His tender heir might bear his memory:

But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,

Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,

Making a famine where abundance lies,

Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:

Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,

And only herald to the gaudy spring,

Within thine own bud buriest thy content,

And tender churl mak'st waste in niggarding:

Pity the world, or else this glutton be,

To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

一

對天生的尤物我們要求蕃盛，

以便美的玫瑰永遠不會枯死，

但開透的花朵既要及時凋零，

就應把記憶交給嬌嫩的后嗣；

但你，只和你自己的明眸定情，

把自己當燃料喂養眼中的火焰，

和自己作對，待自己未免太狠，

把一片豐沃的土地變成荒田。

你現在是大地的清新的點綴，

又是錦繡陽春的唯一的前鋒，

為什么把富源葬送在嫩蕊里，

溫柔的鄙夫，要吝嗇，反而浪用？

可憐這個世界吧，要不然，貪夫，

就吞噬世界的份，由你和墳墓。

2

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,

And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,

Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now,

Will be a tattered weed of small worth held:

Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies,

Where all the treasure of thy lusty days;

To say within thine own deep sunken eyes,

Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.

How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use,

If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine

Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse'

Proving his beauty by succession thine.

This were to be new made when thou art old,

And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.

二

當四十個冬天圍攻你的朱顏，

在你美的園地挖下深的戰壕，

你青春的華服，那么被人艷羨，

將成襤褸的敗絮，誰也不要瞧：

那時人若問起你的美在何處，

哪里是你那少壯年華的寶藏，

你說，“在我這雙深陷的眼眶里，

是貪婪的羞恥，和無益的頌揚。”

你的美的用途會更值得贊美，

如果你能夠說，“我這寧馨小童

將總結我的賬，寬恕我的老邁，”

證實他的美在繼承你的血統！

這將使你在衰老的暮年更生，

并使你垂冷的血液感到重溫。